Picture Perfect
by sallythedestroyerofworlds23
Summary: Rukia is a photographer who goes to Karakura in search of inspiration. When she meets the irritating Ichigo Kurosaki, and begins to exchange letters with the mysterious Black Romeo,she wonders if she's getting more than she bargained for...
1. Flight

"_All passengers for flight 280 to Karakura please board the plane through Gate 15."_

Excitement and anxiety mingled as Rukia got to her feet upon hearing the intercom announce that her flight was boarding. She took a second to straighten her light jacket and check her jean pockets one last time to make sure no small items were left behind at airport security. Then she reached down and hoisted up a heavy blue duffel bag -her carry-on luggage- over her shoulder and proceeded to follow the small horde of people emptying the waiting area at the airport gate to get onboard their respective planes.

She hurriedly finished the last of the contents in the foam cup in her hand, relishing the final jolt of caffeine in the morning, then tossed the empty container into a nearby trashcan before walking up to the relatively small line of people headed to Karakura. As she neared the flight attendant taking everyone's boarding passes, Rukia contemplated the reality of what today meant.

She was leaving. For an entire summer, Rukia was going to be away from her home in Seretei City. The idea felt terrifying and wonderful at the same time. She'd never been away for more than a couple of weeks at most; and even the few times where she was allowed off the leash, her brother still kept close tabs on her. But this time would be different, she reassured herself again.

Rukia Kuchiki was twenty years old, sister of Byakuya Kuchiki. The name might sound familiar to many, as he has been consistently featured in multiple business and media magazines, having earned his right as one of the 'World's One-hundred Most Powerful and Eligible Bachelors'. And not to get her the wrong way; Rukia loved her brother, he's the only living relative she has and it's thanks to him that she even had a home or got an education (a rather expensive one at that). But Byakuya Kuchiki was not a tolerant man, especially when it came to a little sister more than ten years younger than himself. That, combined with his generally cold persona, Rukia had grown up in a very confined and not altogether pleasant atmosphere.

But of course, Rukia still owed her brother a lot. She knew he'd given up a lot when he took her in, and she never lacked anything…materially speaking. Rukia knew he did his best, and that was enough for her. At least for some time. It had been a little over a year since Rukia had finally moved out of her brother's house; it hadn't been easy, she'd spent years working two jobs _and_ handling her studies, but finally, her efforts had paid off. With the help of her childhood friend and roommate, Rukia managed to afford a little apartment. It was a far cry from the house that was nearly a mansion in which she'd lived before, but it was worth if for a little breath of independence. And living with her best friend -Renji, was his name- was definitely preferable to living with Byakuya. (Of course Byakuya was kept in the dark about the particulars of the living arrangements -meaning Renji and her living under the same roof-, but that was for his own good…and Renji's.)

Rukia nodded at the attendant who handed her back her boarding pass with a smile and, using a sickeningly practiced cheery voice said "Have a nice flight."

It took Rukia a few minutes longer than it should have to find her seat. Furrowing her brow, she narrowed her eyes to look at the seat number shown on her boarding pass. _**E15**_, it read. She looked up again and continued to walk down the narrow aisle of the plane, trying to ignore the annoyed mutters coming from behind her complaining about her slowness.

It wasn't her fault, she thought defensively. She'd never ridden a plane by herself, is all. Besides, the few times she _had_ been on a plane, it had been strictly first class and _completely_ different from this. For the first time, Rukia wondered if she shouldn't have argued against Byakuya in her decision to travel more economically.

After almost five stressful minutes, Rukia looked up to see _**E14 E15**_ displayed above two empty window seats. She ran a hand through her raven hair to push some of the rebellious strands behind her ear, before letting out a small groan of dissatisfaction at seeing her view was of the majestic…wing.

Rukia slid her duffel bag off her shoulder and began the process of hoisting it over her head and into the carriage compartment. The task proved rather difficult, as the bag seemed to be just a little too large to fit in comfortably, and the weight of it was making it exceedingly hard for her to keep it above her for long.

_Damn I should have spent more time at the gym._ Rukia thought miserably with a growl as she tried and failed once again to stuff the bag in its place. Just as she thought the bag was going to finally cooperate, she felt the objects inside it shift slightly, making the weight appear to double on her already-shaky arms. Desperately trying to keep the bag -with all its delicate contents- from falling, she clutched it with all her might; unfortunately, the weight and the bag's momentum proved to be too much for her and she found herself loosing her balance and falling backwards.

Her eyes automatically closed as she braced herself for the impact…but it never came.

"Huh?" she asked aloud, opening her eyes to see that someone had caught the bag on the other side just in time, keeping it up against the compartment with both hands. Rukia realized she escaped the fall because she was holding onto the bag for dear life. Realizing this, she quickly straightened herself up and, together with the other person whose face she couldn't see behind the bag, pushed the duffel up and forced it to fit in the compartment.

Rukia was huffing and she glared at the troublesome bag before turning to see the person who'd helped her. She was surprised to see it was a girl, probably not much older than herself, who was smiling as she playfully dusted off her hands and said "Phew! That was some heavy bag! I bet you have all kinds of weird stuff in there!"

Choosing to ignore the last remark, Rukia looked at the girl and said, "Thanks for the help. I lost my balance there and, well…" she looked away as an embarrassed blush threatened to cover her cheeks; she tried covering it up with a cough.

The girl didn't seem to notice, and she just smiled more widely and said, "No problem at all! Stuff like that happens to me _all_ the time, I'm so clumsy!" The girl said dramatically. "I'm Orihime Inoue, by the way." The girl said, her brown eyes wide and friendly as she extended her hand, which Rukia promptly took and proceeded to introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you, Rukia." The girl, Orihime said in a refreshingly sincere voice. She went on to talk about how the other day she had been at the grocery store, getting a fresh supply of red bean paste (what on earth did she need bean paste for?) and as she had been reaching for the upper shelf, she tripped over a small wet area of the floor, and then an employee rushed to help her, but as he started to help her up, he tripped over the same spot and wound up falling as well…

Rukia tried to keep up as the girl went on to chatter a mile a minute.

Orihime had long, dark orange hair that was held back by two aqua flower pins on either side of the girl's heart shaped face. She was taller than Rukia -but then again, who wasn't?- and was wearing a flower printed skirt that went down below her knees, with a sleeveless white shirt. Rukia couldn't help but notice, Orihime was rather…endowed in her assets, which tended to bounce slightly as she started getting more energetic in her stories.

She seemed nice, though. Not the type of person Rukia was used to, that's for sure, but she thought she could get along with her. Orihime's rapid and seemingly endless chatter didn't require Rukia to put a lot into the conversation, which was a good thing, as her mind was rather occupied at the moment.

"-and then the _manager_ showed up, saying that- Oh! You're in _**E15**_?" Orihime paused her tale to ask this as Rukia began to slide into her seat.

Pausing to check her ticket for the hundredth time just in case, Rukia looked back up and said "Yeah, I am."

Orihime bit her lower lip and her childlike eyes looked up at Rukia sheepishly. "Would you mind switching seats with me? I'm _**E14**_, but I usually sit on the window seat, otherwise I get sick and then I have to-"

Rukia interrupted before the orange-head launched into a fuller explanation. "It's okay, I don't mind."

"Thank you, Rukia!" The petite raven-head didn't have a chance to reply as she was engulfed in a breathtaking hug by the cheerful brown-eyed girl.

"_Mmmffl!"_

"What? Oh, sorry!" Sweet relief filled Rukia as once again oxygen filled her lungs. "Thanks again, Rukia!"

"Don't mention it." she said, laughing shakily as she tested her arms for feeling before taking her -Orihime's- seat. Orihime might look inoffensive and friendly, but she could probably strangle _a bear _if she wanted to.

Rukia listened to Orihime's excited chatter for most of the flight, tuning her out a few times when the girl got overly carried away or her own thoughts whirled her away.

The flight to Karakura was eight hours long -a killer pain in the back-, during which Rukia had plenty of time to mull over the possibilities this summer would offer for her.

Two months -two _whole_ months- away from Seretei; away from Byakuya, away from everything. Just her and her camera. She'd been planning this for years, having started to save up even before she began saving to move out of her house. She'd known this was what she wanted, and now that it was finally there, just a couple more hours away…

The main purpose of the trip was, of course, business (otherwise Byakuya would have never approved). Rukia would graduate college in another year approximately; she was majoring in photography. Her choice of career had been…questioned, to say the least, by her elder brother, but she had known what she'd wanted. It hadn't been easy convincing Byakuya to allow her to pursue that dream, but in the end, they both knew it was Rukia's decision, and she had her heart set on photography. In the end, she'd finally convinced Byakuya to let her major in photography, with the condition that she do a minor in Business. To say the last three years had been arduous was the understatement of the century, but Rukia didn't regret it once. She would do all it took. This summer would be no exception.

See, Rukia had always loved photography, that was undisputable; but when she began pursuing it as a career and began practicing it, she quickly realized she was missing one important detail: Inspiration.

As much as Rukia tried, she could never quite capture something she was truly proud of in Seretei. She tried people, scenery, weather, animals, -hell! She'd even taken pictures of traffic. But though the pictures were good and undeniably artistic…something was lacking. At least, that's what her late mentor and friend, Kaien Shiba was his name, had told her once.

That's where Karakura came in. Karakura was a small town in which Rukia had been born. She didn't actually remember anything about the place, and only knew that was where she came from due to one of her brother's rare explanations of her past. So, why go to Karakura of all places? The place wasn't exactly known for its scenic beauty or its thriving culture, and it wasn't likely to be brewing with opportunities for a young photographer…

The reason why she chose Karakura then? She wanted a fresh start. What better place to get a fresh start than the place where you were born? Rukia wanted to start over, and she thought this would be the perfect place. She wanted to go back to her origins in search of something. What that something was, she didn't know. All she knew was that it was what she needed to get true inspiration; and she felt in her heart that Karakura was the right place to look for it.

Rukia realized then how much she had relaxed since first getting on the plane. Whether it was thanks to Orihime, or by her own inner musings, she felt a lot better about this now.

She heard the pilot announce the plane would be landing in approximately fifteen minutes.

Rukia looked down and noticed that Orihime had dozed off on her shoulder at some point. Instead of being freaked out, Rukia actually felt some fondness as she looked at the sleeping girl. She almost felt bad when she gently shook the other girl's shoulder to wake her up.

"THE PIRATE-EATING ROBOTS SHOOTING LASERBEAMS ARE HERE!"

If Rukia hadn't been buckled in her seat, she would have jumped back a mile after Orihime snapped awake and yelled out.

"Err…Sorry to wake you, the…umm, plane is landing…"

Twenty minutes later, Orihime and Rukia joined the rest of the passengers and exited the plane, the latter with her heavy duffel bag in tow. The two made their way to the baggage claim, Rukia receiving the last of her luggage shortly after Orihime, and continued their way out of the airport.

Thanks to the time change, it was just past noon when they arrived at Karakura. As Rukia stepped out of the air-conditioned gates of the airport, she was struck with a wave of hot air that slapped her like a ton of bricks. Almost automatically, she shrugged off her jacket and tied the sleeves around her waist to keep it in place as she continued to roll her two oversized bags over the pavement.

She took a moment to glance around. Yellow cabs were lined up right outside, and buses leading to various different places announced on their sides waited a little off the side. Dozens of cars sat still in the heavy traffic caused by all the people come to pick up someone. Rukia even spotted a couple of limousines at some distance, her gaze lingering on them with some nostalgia, knowing that if she hadn't been so stubborn, she could have one just like it waiting for her at the moment. Shaking the thought out of her head, she focused on the many cabs, trying to decide which one to get on. Would it make a difference? Maybe she should have done a little more research before heading here…

She was about to ask Orihime about her current predicament, when the orange-haired girl spoke. "So Rukia, how long will you be visiting Karakura?"

"Oh, the rest of the summer. About two months I guess." Rukia answered, not immediately registering the look of glee that settled on the other girl's face.

"That's wonderful! All summer? Wow!" Orihime exclaimed, her huge smile splitting her face. "We'll have so much fun! I wonder what we should do first…" she trailed off and put a finger on her chin and pouted as she thought.

"How long are you staying?" Rukia asked now, curious at the girl's reaction.

"Me?" Orihime pointed to herself for emphasis. "Oh, I live here!" she clarified.

At this, Rukia's eyes widen in comprehension. "Oh! I just thought, sorry-"

"That's alright." Orihime waved around her hand dismissively, her smile already returning with ease. "I can show you around sometime, if you want." she said, a bit more calmly now.

Rukia nodded and even offered her a smile. "That would be great." she said honestly. What better way to start looking for whatever the hell it was she was looking than to have someone personally take her around town? It was perfect.

"Alright!" the busty girl exclaimed as if she had just gotten the answer to a particularly difficult question. "You're not doing anything tomorrow, right?" Without waiting for Rukia to answer, she went on. "Why don't you come over to the coffee shop I work at? I have to work there tomorrow but my shift ends at noon. You can come over then. We'll meet and then we can go out and do all sorts of fun stuff!"

Orihime's excitement was a bit overwhelming, especially for Rukia, who was used to her stoic emotionless brother, but it was strangely comforting in this new, unknown place. And tomorrow was pretty sudden but, heck! Why not get a head start? Rukia accepted Orihime's offer to meet at the coffee shop she mentioned, and Orihime quickly produced a pen (Rukia wasn't quite sure where exactly from) and scribbled a phone number on Rukia's palm. She promised to call Orihime later that night after she was all settled in her motel, and she would then give Rukia the directions for the coffee shop.

After that, Orihime spotted the car in which a friend of hers had come to pick her up. She climbed into the passenger side, keeping half her body out of the open window to wave at Rukia one last time and make her promise to call again. Rukia did so, then smiled and waved at the retreating car, before staring down at the hastily written numbers on her open palm.

'_Well, Rukia. Not a bad start.'_ she thought, pleased with herself. It looked like coming to Karakura really was the right decision.

A honk alerted her to a different matter at hand. Looking at all the different cabs and buses, Rukia groaned as she realized she forgot to ask Orihime which one she should get on.

Now the real first challenge of her independence began: learning how to use public transportation.

* * *

**A/N: I just uploaded the revised version for this chapter, so yeah. Enjoy, review, you know the drill :)**


	2. First Encounters

"_Who the hell is this?"_

"Erm, R-Rukia Kuchiki, I-"

"_Ah hell no! Another fucking collection agency? Don't you bastards have anything better to do?"_

"Uh-"

"_I already told you, stop being such goddamn pains in my ass and stop calling here! I hope you all rot in hell you good-for-nothing pieces of sh-"_

"Sorry, wrong number!"

Rukia slammed the phone on the receiver like it burned, looking at it as if afraid it would jump up and bite her for a good two seconds before releasing a puff of breath and, taking the pencil tucked on top of her ear in her hand, she leaned forwards and crossed yet another name from the open phonebook on the desk in front of her. She put the pencil back over her ear before distastefully giving the phonebook an overview. The thick book that could probably serve as a useful blunt weapon lay open with a more or less equal amount of pages on either side. Which meant that Rukia still had about half a phonebook to go through.

Great.

Deciding she couldn't go much further without caffeine, Rukia pushed her -rather uncomfortable- chair backwards and threw her arms over her head, stretching out her sore limbs before getting up and heading towards the tiny kitchen area in her motel room. Now, you may be wondering _why_ Rukia was just on the phone with such a _charming_ gentleman, and apparently attempting to go through the entire Karakura phonebook.

Well, it was a funny story really.

_Earlier that day…_

_Rukia didn't even wait for the car to come to a full stop before leaping out to the sidewalk, instantly feeling the cold droplets of water begin to shower her. She turned around to slam the yellow door closed as fast as she could, but not fast enough to keep her from getting a glimpse of the man in the driver's seat, leaning back to look at her and giving her a huge, overly creepy lecherous, yellow-toothed smile and calling to her, "Oh come on, baby! You know you liked seeing my-"_

_The rest was lost as a red-faced Rukia slammed the door in his face, not even bothering to offer to pay the man as she rushed to the back to retrieve her luggage from the trunk and haul it to the sidewalk. She shuddered as she watched the car speed away under the heavy rainfall._

_That was the third cab she got on. She was still no closer now to finding the Katen Kyokotsu Motel than she was two hours ago when she arrived at the airport. She cursed at her bad luck and in a fit of anger stomped her foot at the same time as she threw her head back and groaned at the heavens. Unfortunately for her, she happened to stomp her foot right in the middle of a well-formed and distinctively murky puddle, successfully soaking the lower half of her boot cut jeans._

_Rukia could only wonder in disbelief at how it was possible for the weather, which had been sunny and incredibly hot, was now pouring cats and dogs and utterly freezing._

_Feeling her wet hair begin to mat to her neck and face and her clothes become heavier and clinging to her skin, Rukia began pulling her two rolling packs and laid them horizontally against the wall of some building she was standing outside of. Then she flopped down on top of one of the bags, setting her blue duffel bag on her lap and doubling over to bury her face on the bag. She stayed like that for a while, eyes shut tightly, blocking out everything but the heavy rain droplets pelting her back._

_She didn't look up until she heard footsteps closing in and stop right before her, at the same time as the rain abruptly stopped soaking her. The tall figure of a man loomed before her. He wore a long worn trench coat and slightly ragged clothing, and he had a large umbrella held over them both, the rain making pitter-patter sounds as it crashed against it._

"_Are you alright, miss?" he asked, his voice deep but his face wore a friendly expression._

_Rukia looked up and, unable to lie at her current state, shook her head. The man offered her a smile and said "Why don't you let me help you?" He reached out a hand, wearing a glove with the fingers cut off, as if to help her stand._

_Normally, Rukia would scoff at such a gesture, but right then it was almost as welcome as the umbrella. So Rukia reached her hand out to the stranger and he started to take her…_

_Watch?_

_The man reached all the way down to her wrist, and before she realized his intentions, yanked her silver Chappy wristwatch all the way off her wrist and slid out all the way off her hand in one rough motion._

"_HEY!" she yelled after him and jumped up, but the man had already run way beyond her reach, her watch in his grubby hands. _

_Could things get _any _worse?_

_Looking down at the hand from which her watch had been ripped off, Rukia realized, they could. She stared at the smudged black ink on her palm, the numbers once written there blurred beyond recognition._

_Rukia could have screamed._

Back at the present…

If anyone could claim to have the _worst_ first day of a summer trip, it was Rukia.

One bus ride and another cab later, Rukia had finally made it to the Katen Kyokotsu in one piece…minus a wristwatch. It had been a limited edition Chappy edition too.

But her travesty had been far from over. After a teeth-shattering cold shower (thanks to the motel suffering some inconveniences with the plumbing) and a change into blessed dry clothes, Rukia had begun the arduous task of finding Orihime's phone number…one call at a time.

It would have been done in a matter of minutes, if only Rukia had managed to remember the girl's last name. After a few futile attempts of remembering the erased phone number, Rukia had decided to find the girl herself on the phonebook. Easy as it sounded, she found herself fighting the urge to pull her hair out in frustration when she realized she couldn't remember Orihime's last name.

So she'd gone on to call every Orihime listed…which turned out to be a lot. Rukia wondered at how many Orihimes could live in such relatively small town! Did parents get bored at some point and decide to all name their children the same? Cheesh…

Rukia filled her mug with deliciously hot, fresh coffee from the fresh batch she'd prepared; immediately taking it to her lips to enjoy the scolding heat that ran down her throat and spread through her chilled body. Afterwards she squared her shoulders and resolutely returned to the other side of the small motel room, where the desk was waiting for her with a telephone and a phonebook.

Setting her Chappy coffee mug (which she'd gone through the trouble of extracting from her still-packed luggage) on the desk beside the phonebook, Rukia returned to her seat and got to work.

"Orihime!" Rukia exclaimed with more glee than she normally would have felt after hearing the girl on the other line utter an excited "_Rukia!"._

It had taken her eight more tries, but she'd finally found the right one, to her great and utter relief.

On the other end of the line, Orihime giggled, presumably at Rukia's over excitement.

Well, after the day she'd had, getting a right phone number seemed like an accomplishment meriting her response.

"Listen, Orihime," she started, letting her excitement fade back into a normal tone. "I'm calling about what we talked about earlier. You said you'd meet me tomorrow to show me around…" Rukia trailed off, hoping the girl would catch on quick. "I was supposed to call you for directions to a coffee shop…" she elaborated.

"_Oh, of course! I'll give them to you right away!"_

Rukia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Orihime was probably the friendliest person she'd ever met, but she sure could be air headed…

Rukia hurriedly scribbled down Orihime's hasty instructions on a blank notepad provided by the motel room, and with a quick 'thank you' hung up and decided to get some well-earned rest.

Completely ignoring the upright humid bags full of her personal things that needed unpacking (and very possibly, air-drying), she made a beeline for the queen-sized bed, and without bothering to pull back the covers or settle in, she dropped down face-first diagonally across the bed. She didn't even bother pulling up a pillow before letting her eyes droop and allowing a much-needed sleep overcome her.

-x-

At ten in the morning the next day, Rukia was up and ready to go. Dressed in casual light clothing (but carrying a rain jacket as a precaution, as to avoid a disaster like the previous day's), she slung a large baglike purse over her shoulder, across her chest, letting it hang over her hip. She made her way over to the bed -its covers wrinkled and out of place after her night sprawled over them- to where her blue duffel bag lay, zipper open. She slipped her hands inside and extracted the most important of the bag's contents.

A smile tugged at the edges of Rukia's lips as she gazed at her most precious possession.

Her camera. A beautiful, fully black Olympus E-3 SLR; her baby. It wasn't her first camera; Rukia's very first camera had been a much humbler, much cheaper model that she had saved for herself way before she had the semi-approval of her brother to pursue photography. But _this_ camera, this camera had as many memories as pictures it had taken. Rukia almost subconsciously ran a hand over the smooth edges as she smiled fondly at the camera and the memories it conjured up. The camera had been a gift, probably the best gift she'd gotten so far in her life.

Finished with her admiring ritual, Rukia carefully tucked the camera safe into her purse. One thing about Rukia: she almost _never_ left anywhere without her camera. The number one rule about photography; you never know when you'll capture a priceless moment.

After one last check to make sure she had everything she needed, Rukia left the motel room. Unwilling to repeat yesterday's odyssey, she spared herself the trouble by going up to the front desk at the lobby, where a stiff-looking slender woman with bespectacled blue eyes and pinned-up hair sat; Rukia had the woman call her a cab to come pick her up straight at the Katen Kyokotsu. Fifteen minutes later, she was climbing into the back of the cab, reciting Orihime's instructions to get to the 'Urahara Coffee Shop', which she had long-since memorized at that hour of the morning.

The trip from the Katen Kyokotsu to the Urahara café turned out not to be too long, just over ten minutes; which meant Rukia arrived to the coffee shop just around 10:30am…Over one hour before she was actually supposed to meet up with Orihime.

Rukia considered killing time walking around and exploring the other shops and stores in the area, but remembering all of the day prior's mishaps, she decided she was safer just waiting in the café until Orihime got off her shift. With that choice made, Rukia pushed open the glass door upon which hung a white sign with the word '**OPEN**' displayed boldly above the shop's hours of service.

A bell chimed when Rukia pushed open the door, announcing her arrival to the nearly empty shop. She let the door fall closed behind her with another chime, then stood there for a moment to look at the place.

The Urahara Coffee Shop looked like any other ordinary coffee shop at first glance; square tables scattered in the center of the room, with lower, more private booths lined up on against the walls. The smell of coffee beans mixed with other, sweeter smells to provide that unique appealing scent of a coffee shop. She saw a couple of people sitting at the tables in the enjoying breakfast as they leafed through the day's newspaper, and a man slumped in one of the furthest booths, working on a laptop set on the table. To Rukia's right, a long glass display showed off delicious-looking baked goods with small cards beside each one informing its price -which, she noticed rapidly, was rather steep-. Behind the display, a cash register sat unattended. Further back, Rukia saw the machine the employees used to make the coffee or other fancy drinks. Nothing out of the ordinary.

However, Rukia having the artistic eye of a photographer, soon noticed the inconspicuous qualities that distinguished the Urahara coffee shop from ordinary shops. First, and probably most noticeable of all, on the far back wall, amongst a clutter of pointless decoration and displays, three long curved slender objects, which she immediately recognized as sheathed traditional Japanese katana, were proudly perched on small hooks that kept them up on the wall. Furthermore, Rukia now noticed that the multiple rugs placed under most of the tables, which she'd thought at first to be quite ordinary, possessed incredibly unique qualities. One of the rugs greatly -too greatly- resembled a traditional Arabian carpet, commonly represented as a 'flying carpet', that should have been far too expensive for any small coffee shop to own…and it looked pretty authentic. Another rug was pure white and furry, and upon a closer look, Rukia saw it to be a very tacky, uncomfortably realistic dissected polar bear rug like the ones often shown in movies at hunter's cabins. Rukia shuddered at the thought and looked around, noticing multiple other hidden queers scattered around the whole room.

Other than the unorthodox and at times eerie decoration, the Urahara shop had the general pleasant atmosphere of any other coffee shop. Deliberately choosing one of the furthest booths -as far away from the polar bear rug as she could-, Rukia sank down.

She sat still for almost exactly three seconds before pulling her cell phone out of her purse and pressing a random button to light up the screen and look at the time -since her actual wristwatch was so conspicuously gone-, to see that two minutes had passed since she arrived.

Okay, so she had some serious time to kill.

With nothing better to do, Rukia pulled out the piece of paper where Orihime's instructions were scribbled down (though she'd committed them to memory as to not repeat anything like the 'phonebook' incident, she still brought insurance), then searched her voluminous purse for a trusty pen -_never leave home without one_; a lesson instilled into her by her brother since childhood- and engaged in a time-honored activity that had gotten her through many trials before: doodling.

It wasn't long before Rukia was enthralled in the intricate pattern of lines and curves that made up her self-proclaimed works of art. She was now blind and deaf to the coffee shop around her, too immersed in her newest masterpiece to notice the footsteps that neared her.

She didn't notice the tall figure looming over her shoulder until a gruff voice spoke up and signed his death warrant.

"What the hell is that piece of crap?"

Those were the first words she heard him utter. Her first reaction was, inevitably, to nearly jump out her skin of surprise due to the words spoken just over her head.

"Gah!" she had shrieked involuntarily, whipping around in her seat to look up at the reason of her sped up heart.

Her gaze focused on orange. Really bright orange.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya. Though I can't see how anything could be more frightening than those abominable drawings." The orange-haired -_yes- _she corroborated silently to herself- _orange_-haired man standing behind her said.

Rukia's shock over the man's hair color faded quickly as the full meaning of his words dawned upon her. Instantly, her eyes widened and she felt the anger rising up from her stomach to her tongue.

"The only thing abominable around here is that ridiculous hair!" she snapped back, completely ignoring that this man was a perfect stranger standing inside a coffee shop with other people around. To Rukia, it was just an idiot who had insulted her works of art.

The man seemed momentarily taken aback by her retort, but then his face settled back into a scowl she vaguely remembered him wearing just before and he just rolled his eyes before saying, "Like I haven't heard _that_ before."

Rukia glared at him, annoyed with the way he just brushed off her insult, but also mildly embarrassed by her sudden outburst. She couldn't help it, it was a reflex to insult inferior-minded beings who dared mock her art…and Chappy. Messing with Chappy was the ultimate crime.

Choosing to ignore the man now, Rukia turned back in her seat and retook her previous position hunched over the sheet of paper now covered in drawings…She didn't even get a chance to put the pen back against the surface before the whole sheet was rudely snatched out from under her nose.

Gaping incredulously at his daring, she straightened up to look at the orange-haired man who was now standing beside her table.

"What the _hell?_" After the day she'd had yesterday, Rukia was in the perfect mood to snap at the smallest of provocations…And this idiot was giving her the perfect setting.

The man was holding the paper up to his face, his eyebrows scrunching down further and his eyes narrowing as he nearly went cross-eyed inspecting the piece of paper almost against his nose.

Taking advantage of his apparent concentration, Rukia sat up as much as the table allowed her and reached up to seize the sheet of paper from his unsuspecting hands. But the man was quick to notice her attempt, and had pulled the paper out of her reach before she'd even touched it. Before Rukia could utter any of the angry words bubbling on the tip of her tongue, he looked at her and asked,

"What the hell is this shit?" referring to the paper, which he held at a distance, her drawings facing them both.

"_That_ is a work of art done by yours truly, and it is most certainly _not shit!"_ The last part came out a little louder than was considered appropriate, but at the moment, she didn't care. Rukia had been dynamite waiting to be set off for the past twelve hours or so, and this man was seriously setting her off.

The man scoffed. "It looks like shit to me." he said casually. "And who the hell draws koalas anyway?"

Rukia's mouth fell open. "They're _RABBITS!_ Not koalas, you fool!"

The man looked between her and the paper then, "Don't see the difference."

Rukia could have yelled out a thousand different insults at him, but feeling the eyes of the other customers on her and deciding she'd given enough of a show for a day, she swalloed down every last hostile word and sank back into her seat with her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest and her eyes diverted to glare at some unfortunate spot on the wall.

"Is there any particular reason why you're pestering me or can you go away and leave me alone now?" she asked in as unfriendly a tone as she could muster without fully snapping.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man's face get a blank look for a split second before, "Oh yeah!" he said, as if just remembering. "My boss told me to tell you to order something or you have to leave." he informed her in an uncaring voice.

It was only then that Rukia noticed the dark green apron tied over a button-up white shirt and black pants -a uniform-. Narrowing her eyes, she even saw the small rectangle pinned on his apron that read 'Uryu Ishida', presumably, the man's name. So he worked there. She wondered if sweet Orihime knew this rude idiot.

Rukia wanted to tell him to tell his boss to shove it, but seeing no point in further banter, she let out an annoyed huff and said, "Whatever, bring me a coffee."

At this, the man, Uryu Ishida, by the looks of his nametag -Rukia made a mental note that the name did _not_ suit the orange-haired man- raised an equally orange eyebrow. "Sorry princess, I'm no waiter." he pointed at the area where the cash register was, a small sign she hadn't paid attention to before hung over-head, reading 'ORDER HERE'.

Overly exasperated, Rukia let out a groan and wordlessly slid out of her book, starting to head over to order; but not before snatching her drawings back from the now-unsuspecting man. He showed only a moment of surprise at that but then just followed after her, going on around the counter to stand behind the cash register as Rukia waited with her arms folded over her chest in annoyance.

"So, light or dark?" he asked, his eyes focusing on the register as he pressed some buttons.

"Eh?" she asked, caught off guard by the question.

"The coffee."

"Oh, light."

He scoffed at that; it was very low and short, but Rukia noticed.

"_What?"_ she demanded, narrowing her violet eyes at him.

"Nothing." he replied quickly. "…Princess."

Rukia silently seethed at the mocking title.

"_Dark."_ she hissed, making him pause in the process of whatever numbers he was punching.

"Sure about that?" he asked, the mocking edge subdued but evident in his voice and his features.

"_Yes."_

"Coming right up." he said quickly in a neutral tone before turning to the machine behind him and setting to work on whatever he had to do to get her coffee.

Rukia leaned against the glass display, stubbornly looking away as she waited.

"That'll be $5.50." The man informed, pushing the freshly prepared Styrofoam cup of _dark_ coffee towards her, the slight twitch of the corner of his mouth letting her know he was trying to suppress a grin.

Grumbling about the rip-off, Rukia reluctantly paid the man that looked far-too-victorious for her liking.

"_Thanks,_ Uryu." Rukia said through clenched teeth, the lack of gratitude in her words obvious. She took the coffee and turned to leave without noticing the confused look that twisted the man's face for a moment before he looked down at his nametag and then back up.

"My name's not Uryu." he called after her, his distaste for the name plain.

Rukia quirked an eyebrow at this, turning back to look at the man, sending a pointed look to his nametag before meeting his eyes again as if to say '_Then what the hell is that on your nametag, dumbass?'_

"I'm borrowing this apron." he explained, tugging at the green straps that went around his neck uncomfortably. Now Rukia could notice that it _did_ look a bit small for his broad shoulders.

_Broad shoulders? What the hell? More like…large…pudgy…shoulders. Yeah…_ She corrected herself mentally for having made the mistake of attributing this irritating man any remotely attractive qualities.

Quickly recomposing herself, Rukia eyed him. "Too careless to bring your _own_ clothes?" she remarked casually.

The once-again nameless orange-head flashed her a look of irritation at her implication. "Hardly."

Rukia was just opening her mouth to comment further on her views of him as an irresponsible buffoon, but was interrupted when the sound of chiming bells announced someone's arrival. Both she and the guy automatically averted their eyes to see who the newcomer was.

Rukia's face immediately smoothed into an expression of relief and a smile.

"Orihime." It wasn't Rukia who called the busty girl's name, though she'd been about to.

She looked back to see Ichigo was staring at the girl. "You're back here already?" he questioned.

Rukia frowned, quite distinctly remembering Orihime say she worked at the coffee shop and her shift _ended_ at noon. The better question was, why hadn't she _already_ been there?

Orihime didn't seem to find his question odd, though. "Oh, yeah! Uryu didn't know I was supposed to meet Rukia here after my shift, so I had to leave early to come here to-"

"Oh, well. Okay, then." Ichigo said before Orihime had a chance to launch into a full explanation. Rukia looked at him and saw, beyond the scowl that seemed to be permanently etched on his face, a bit of…_disappointment?_

Looking back at Orihime, she saw that the girl had abruptly stopped talking, her brown eyes locked on the orange-haired man, her cheeks being tainted with a rosy color that hadn't been there when she first walked in. "I was rambling again, wasn't I? Oh, I'm so sorry! You know I tend to do that a lot, Tatsuki tells me so all the time. And I don't even notice when I start, I just suddenly open my mouth and then I keep talking and talking and-"

"Orihime," this time, it was Rukia who cut the girl off, deciding to make her presence known, seeing as it seemed Orihime hadn't taken her eyes off of the scowling guy since getting there.

The girl's brown eyes immediately flew to Rukia and her face eased into a bright smile. "Ah, Rukia! I see you're a bit early! I was afraid you might get lost on your way here, so I was about to call you. But I see you made it okay!" the girl chirped in a cheerful mood that seemed to be as perennial for her as the orange-haired guy's scowl. "Have you been waiting long?" she asked.

About an hour, bit more. "Not long." Rukia said, being rewarded by another smile from the girl.

"Ah, good! I see you've met Ichigo." she said, now looking back and forth between the petite girl and the tall man, her gaze settling on the guy after a moment.

It took Rukia a second to realize she was referring to the annoying employee. "Oh, him…" the sour way in which she said 'him' would have been indicator enough to anyone. But apparently, Orihime wasn't anyone.

"So did you guys have a nice chat?" she asked obliviously.

"Charming." Rukia said flatly, feeling the guy's eyes narrowing on her head, but refusing to acknowledge him.

"Nice to meet you too, _princess._"

Her eyes inevitably snapped to glare at him for the 'nickname'.

A smirk appeared on his face for an instant before he straightened and looked back at Orihime. He undid the tie behind his back of the green apron then brought it over his head and stretched his hand towards Orihime, offering the apron. Rukia felt disbelief of his gall to just assume Orihime would take his apron like a servant in waiting.

"Here, give it back to Uryu when you see him."

Orihime nodded, keeping her gaze focused on the apron and not lifting it to look at the man when he looked at her; something Rukia didn't miss.

"And tell him next time he wants to play hooky, he can go crying to someone else. This is the last time I'm covering for that bastard." The guy said, grumbling something about hating the morning shift afterwards.

Orihime nodded furiously and readily said, "I'll tell him, Ichigo! I'll make sure he gets it too." she added the last bit with a serious expression and a conspiring wink, along with a not-so-low hush.

Rukia raised her eyebrows as the silly behavior went unnoticed by him, and she figured that this was more than usual for Orihime, so he was used to it by now.

"…Right, so…" Rukia muttered tentatively as an awkward silence began to settle over the three.

"Oh! Right! Rukia, we're going to go to town now!" Orihime announced, looking like she was remembering as she spoke.

"Right." Rukia agreed.

"Well, then, we'd better go! Don't want to wait til it's too dark when the goblins come out!" Orihime giggled nervously as she grabbed Rukia's wrist and began to drag her out of the store at the same time as she waved to the orange-haired man.

The last glimpse Rukia caught of him before the door closed behind her was of him hesitantly waving back.

_What an odd set of people._ She thought silently to herself as, once out in the sidewalk, Orihime let go of her wrist and stopped long enough for Rukia to lift the Styrofoam cup to her lips and take a sip of the contents.

Which she promptly spat out onto the sidewalk, coughing and wiping her mouth to try to get rid of the bitter taste.

_I _hate_ dark coffee!_

Still inside the Urahara Coffee Shop, an orange-haired man watched the whole thing, right up to the point were the short girl threw away the barely touched contents of her cup.

Ichigo felt himself smirk, inexplicably enjoying the sight. He shook his head as his eyes lingered a little longer than necessary on the raven-haired girl, now conversing casually -mutely words to him- with Orihime.

_Strange little midget._

_

* * *

_

**A/N: Early update! I didn't plan that, so don't get used to it. I'll try to keep updates frequent but an update THIS soon is rare for me (just a fair warning).**

**Anyways, I didn't actually get to the part I wanted to in this chap, but it was already 11 pages and if I took it as far as I'd planned it would have been way too long for an early chap (in the future, I do expect to make longer chapters, but I'm taking it slow for now. Easing into it, u know?) BUT I did get Rukia and Ichigo to meet, hehe. Don't worry, I know I haven't introduced the 'exchanging anonymous letters' plot part yet, but relax. Next chapter I'll have that and a look into some more Ichigo POV and stuff. **

**So, let me know what you think so far :) Reviews encourage me to write more and write better, so inspire me! (no, I am not above bribing with updates for reviews xD) Hopefully, next chapter will take one or two weeks to get here. Hope to see you then ^.^**


	3. Destiny Willow

Ichigo Kurosaki was not a bad man.

Sure he had a temper, a short one at that, but he cared for his friends and his family. He tolerated a lot from them, a_ lot_. He actually considered himself to be quite patient considering the idiots he was surrounded with. But really, sometimes he just reached his limit.

And morons like Keigo had a tendency to make him reach that limit _very _quickly.

"Keigo, for the _last time,"_ he ground out through clenched teeth. "I'm working. Ho wmany times have I told you _not _bother me at work?" _Or ever_. He added mentally.

"But Ichigo!" the brown-haired man, if he could be classified as a man, whined from across the table that Ichigo was currently hunched over, wiping the surface with an old rag. "This is _really_ important! This is life-altering! This is a gift from the gods!" He exuberantly exclaimed, and Ichigo was afraid he would climb on top of the table and start singing or something. He wouldn't put it past him. In fact, he distinctly recalled it having happened more than once already.

Fearing that outcome, Ichigo growled and -leaving the rag on the table- he went around and roughly grabbed Keigo by the back of his shirt's collar, then proceeded to drag him to behind the counter of the Urahara Shop. When they were there, at a safe distance from unsuspecting customers, Ichigo deemed it safe to let go of the hyperactive man and -crossing his arms over his chest and directing the other man a fearsome scowl, asked, "What the hell is it?"

Keigo, who had been whimpering about Ichigo being mean to him two seconds prior, jumped up and his whole demeanor brightened. Ichigo could swear he even saw stars in the man's brown eyes.

"Oh, I have wonderful news, Ichigo!"

"It better be that I won the lottery…Or that you're moving to another continent." he added the second part as an afterthought.

Keigo, apparently, was too excited and joyful to even complain about Ichigo being 'mean'. "Something great happened…Can you guess what it is, Ichigo?"

"No. Hurry up and tell me."

"Try to guess! Come on!"

Ichigo grabbed the front of Keigo's shirt and brought the skinny man off his feet and closer until they were nose to nose. Ichigo bared his teeth, irritation making him quite intimidating. "_Just tell me what it is._"

"O-okay." the other man laughed nervously before Ichigo let him go and waited for him to go on. Keigo started reaching to the back of his pants and began to extract something from his back pockets. "Guess-" he started saying, saw Ichigo's dangerous look, and rephrased. "Look at what I found this morning!" he sang as he pulled out a relatively small, square, white envelope and shoved it in front of Ichigo's nose, making him go cross-eyed as he tried to look at the object.

"What the fuck?" Ichigo asked, leaning away before rudely snatching the object into his own hand and looking down at it.

It was a letter.

"Eh?" he raised his questioning eyes to Keigo, and saw that his friend was beaming, looking overjoyed for some reason.

"Oh, Ichigo! All our problems have been solved!"

"Does this letter contain the will of some dead relative leaving me his fortune?" Ichigo questioned, looking at the little white envelope warily.

"Nope! Even better!"

"…"

"It's a letter from your soul mate!" Keigo jumped to glomp Ichigo, but the orange-haired man had fast reflexes and years of experience, and had punched the man to the ground before he could ever reach him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. English, please."

"Don't you remember? How could you forget already?" Fake tears ran down the guy's face as he got back up in remarkable time.

"Enlighten me."

"The Destiny Willow! We went there last week! Mizuiro and Chad and Uryu were all there too!"

Ichigo put a finger to his chin and looked up at nowhere in specific as he silently recalled the day Keigo was talking about.

He'd somehow convinced all the guys to go out with him to 'party all night long', but in reality, the idiot had taken them to the freaking Wall. Ichigo still wasn't over the embarrassment.

"So, what about it?" Ichigo questioned impatiently.

"A girl wrote you back. See? That letter was tied on your spot. You are so lucky!" With the last exclamation, he launched himself at Ichigo once more, only to get a foot in his face.

Ichigo looked back down calmly and stared at the closed letter. On the back of the envelope, he saw a crudely drawn rabbit that looked vaguely familiar, though he couldn't remember why, and written beside it in bubblegum pink ink, was a friendly '_To Black Romeo.'_

He looked at it incredulously. It seemed someone really _had _written him back.

But who the hell would write to _him?_

-x-

_Two days earlier…_

Rukia sat back contently as she sipped from her juice box.

Today was her second day at Karakura Town, and she had to say, everything so far had been fairly…nice. Other than her brief encounter that morning with the rude, bashful, arrogant man with ridiculous orange hair at the Urahara Coffee Shop, the day had run smoothly and pleasantly with Orihime's companionship.

Orihime had offered Rukia to show her around Karakura, and show her she did. The bright girl wasted no time and took her from one end of the town to the other in less than six hours. She had taken her to the museum, to the art gallery, to the cinema, the theater, the observatory, the library (they were forced to leave there early due to their inability -mostly Orihime's- to stay acceptably quiet), the mall, of course; and they even passed by the zoo and an aquarium, though unfortunately they had no time or money left to go in those -though Orihime insistently promised to someday take Rukia there.

By the end of the day, Rukia felt like there was not an inch of Karakura that she hadn't seen. She'd even ridden on the subway with Orihime, thereby taking another step towards mastering the public transportation system. All in all, it had been a very productive day, she thought as she leaned back comfortably on the bench she was currently sitting at on the park; their last stop for the day.

She'd had a good time, there was no doubt about that; it was definitely hard to ever get bored with Orihime around. But Rukia couldn't shake the thought that…She hadn't really seen anything extraordinary yet. Tossing away her empty juice carton into a nearby trashcan, she pulled her large purse over her lap and proceeded to extract the precious object inside. She pulled out her camera and almost immediately began scanning through the pictures she'd taken today.

She'd taken pictures of buildings and nice-looking houses, of the people on the street, of the children excitedly going in and out of the zoo or the museum, of stray dogs sleeping in corners, and of ice cream and hot dog vendors everywhere. She knew the pictures were good, artistically speaking. But they still lacked that something, that _spark_…

She let out an annoyed huff as she felt her mood sour and quickly put away her camera again.

"Are you feeling tired, Rukia?"

An already-familiar chirping voice asked, coming up from behind her. Rukia twisted around on the bench and met the orange-haired girl's eyes. "A little bit." she answered, already feeling drawn from such a long day after just over twenty-four hours of arriving in town.

"Too tired?" Orihime asked, a bit of disappointment crossing her pretty features.

"Not _that_ much." Rukia lied, and was instantly rewarded with a huge beam from the other girl.

"Good! Because we have one last place to see, and this is my favorite of all." Orihime declared, to happy to notice Rukia deflate at the thought of going somewhere other than her motel bed.

"…Okay. But after that I have to head back, I still have some unpacking to do." Rukia agreed, not really having the heart to let Orihime's bright smile down.

Not a moment later, Orihime clasped Rukia's small hand in both of hers and without hesitation pulled her up from the bench and started tugging her after her, crossing the wide green expanse of the park.

It turned out just a few yards from where Rukia had been sitting, the stone wall she had assumed cut off the park from whatever street was on the other side, turned out to be the spot where Orihime was headed. Before she could question the girl, she motioned for her to follow along the wall. It kind of looked like an old times, middle ages type of wall; she couldn't help but wonder what that sort of thing was doing across the park of Karakura. Nonetheless, she followed Orihime right up to what seemed to be the midsection of the wall which extended to the right and left far enough that Rukia couldn't see the other side, but not so far that she couldn't walk along beside the whole thing in less than a half hour. Right on the middle (or so she guessed), was a gate, as tall as the wall (which wasn't really _that_ tall) which Orihime quickly pushed open and, giggling, beaconed Rukia to follow inside.

Rukia went after the girl, and saw what was beyond the gate.

A circular area, complete with benches like the ones out on the park, and people -mostly women, she noted- were gathered around either on the benches, against the backside of the stone wall (which here surrounded the entire area) or scattered around the floor (set in antique styled tiles). At the center of it all was the thing that dominated the scene.

Rukia immediately felt her fingers twitching to reach for her camera, as she beheld the sight. It was a large willow tree, its branches protruding majestically up and then curving down towards the floor, creating almost a curtain of wood and leaves around the massive tree trunk. People were all gathered around the tree, some going around the branches through to the trunk area, others just hanging around a little ways back. What was most unique about the tree, however -other than the fact that it grew right in the middle of an urban area-, were the colorful envelopes hanging from almost every branch, some even tied to the cracked bark of the trunk. Red strings and ribbons of different lengths dangled like Christmas ornaments, relatively small envelopes hanging at the end of every one. The waning light of the late afternoon made the golden rays of sunlight pour through and around the thick branches of the tree, giving it a surreal, almost fantastical appearance.

Rukia fumbled opening her bag, an eagerness swelling in her chest as she beheld the sight. She produced her camera soon after and immediately set to taking pictures from every possible angle, trying to capture the way the light fell between the branches and bathed the area in shimmering gold.

"What is this?" Rukia asked Orihime in wonder, as she squinted looking through the lens as she focused for another shot.

"It's the Destiny Willow." Orihime answered, smiling at Rukia's mystified expression.

Snapping another shot, Rukia finally separated herself from the camera, letting it fall over her stomach from the black strap that it hung from by her neck now. "Destiny Willow?" It sounded like a bad romance novel title to her. Still, the sheer beauty and uniqueness of the place was enough to keep her interested.

Orihime nodded almost eagerly. "It's famous here in Karakura. The legend says that centuries ago, two lovers from different worlds used this very spot to meet in secret, for their love was forbidden. They hid beneath the tree's thick branches every night, until one day, the girl, who was said to be the Princess of a faraway kingdom in Heaven, was caught by her Brother and forced to stay away. The man, who was a lowly Farmer on Earth, continued to show up at the Willow every day. And every day he would write a letter, hoping that when his lover returned, she would find them and know he was waiting for her. He tied each letter to one of the tree's branches using a piece of red ribbon, which was supposed to represent the thread of fate -for he believed that their love was destined." Orihime paused for breath and Rukia had to stop herself from urging her to go on with the story.

Then she went on to say, "The Farmer grew old and his hair turned gray. Yet he still came every single day; by then the tree had as many letters as leaves hanging form its branches. No reply had ever come. Still, the man refused to give up, and kept on writing a letter for her every day, each time hoping he would receive a reply."

"So what happened?" Rukia asked, despite herself, when Orihime stopped talking.

The taller girl shrugged. "Some say he died underneath the tree's branches and his spirit became the life force of the tree, and the letters all became the tree's leaves. Others say that a strong wind came and loosened all the letters from their ribbons, and they all flew far away, all the way to Heaven, where the Princess found them and read them at last. And then there is one tale, that says the Brother found the letters and read them all; and when he did he took pity on the lovers, and allowed the Princess to become mortal and live the rest of her days with the Farmer."

Rukia silently decided that she liked the last story best. "So, all the letters…?" she trailed off, motioning to all the letters currently decorating the branches.

"Ah, that's why we're here!" Orihime exclaimed, quickly taking hold of Rukia's wrist and pulling her along towards the tree. The two ducked under the low-hanging branches and Orihime let go of Rukia once they were behind the branch curtain.

Rukia gazed up in wonder as she saw the golden rays of sunlight coming in from above through the branches, making her feel like she'd stepped into another world; the letters hanging at different intervals above her. She caught herself gaping with her mouth open when Orihime started producing something from the small purse she had hung across her chest from her shoulder.

The orange-haired girl held out two pieces of blank paper, on top of which were unsealed envelopes and pieces of red ribbons, along with a couple of pens in her other hand.

"Wha-?"

"Here, I got these while you were waiting at the park." Orihime explained, handing Rukia one of the small sheets of paper, an envelope, a pen and a ribbon; keeping the extras to herself.

"They sell all this nearby? That's a little convenient…" Rukia muttered.

Orihime giggled. "Of course, silly! Lots of people come over to the Destiny Willow every day to write their own love letters. There are carts selling these all over the park, you just didn't notice."

Rukia thought back and realized she had seen quite a few vendors that didn't seem to be selling ice cream or the usual, but she never would have guessed _this_ was what they sold. So that was what Orihime had been up to while she waited with her juice box on the bench.

"No offense, Orihime," Rukia started carefully, not wanting to hurt her new friend's feelings, but also not really in the mood to feign love letters. "But I don't really have anyone to write to…"

"Oh no! You're not supposed to write to anyone you know." Orihime quickly explained. "Here," she said, motioning to one of the letters hanging low just above their heads. "What you do is that you choose a letter," In following suit, Orihime gently undid the ribbon that held that particular letter and let it fall to her feet, keeping the letter in hand. "You read it, and then if you feel a connection, you write back." She finished like it was the smartest thing in the world.

Rukia stared blankly. "I don't get it."

"It's all about fun and destiny, Rukia." Orihime went on patiently, her good mood not waning a bit. "People come here and write to each other, hoping to find that soul mate that is meant to be with them. It's called the Destiny Willow for a reason. It's all about believing in Destiny."

It sounded like a load of bull to Rukia, who had never been one to believe in such things as deities or 'fates' written in stone. Each person made their own destiny, and that was that.

Probably noticing Rukia's skeptical face, Orihime added, "Just give it a try, Rukia. It won't hurt." she encouraged, her brown eyes looking at her hopefully. And Rukia found that it was impossible to say no to the girl, and decided '_What the hell. It's not like anyone will even write me back.'_

With that, Rukia accepted the utensils Orihime gave her and went on the task of choosing a letter to respond to, while Orihime gleefully went on about reading the letter she'd picked before.

Judging from the lovers theme, Rukia supposed she should find a letter from a male. Which would probably prove hard seeing as, looking around, she only saw a lot of women writing and reading, only a few select men; and they all looked like the reason they were there was because they couldn't get a date anywhere else if their lives depended on it.

Walking around the trunk, Rukia scanned a few of the lower hanging letters (limited due to her height), and saw that most of them were indeed directed to men, judging by the girly writing and tendency of 'I's dotted with hearts. But they were a few that were scribbled in an un-girly fashion, directed with things like 'To my Lady' or 'Sweet destined Bosom'. None seemed particularly promising, and Rukia was considering just dumping the things Orihime gave her and saying she wrote something. She felt guilty at the thought, though, she'd never been one to lie or break promises to friends…Even if it was just a stupid letter.

Finally, her eyes brightened somewhat as she spotted something promising -or at the very least, _different_-. Different was good in this place filled with hopeful dreamers waiting for a Prince Charming or a damsel in distress.

The letter was tied in an unruly knot instead of a graceful bow, and the white envelop was sealed oddly, like it was done carelessly or in a hurry -or both. On the back of the envelope, written in plain black ink, was written:

_To the Idiot who actually reads this._

Feeling her eyebrow arch at the greeting, which obviously wasn't calling for a soul mate (and if he really was rooting for one, then wow…), Rukia reached up for the letter that was just within her reach, pulled on the ribbon enough to snap it in to and free the letter, then proceeded to open it.

_Dear Desperate Girl:_

_Don't get to excited when you read this. I was dragged over to this stupid tree by a stupid guy who is probably even more desperate than you are (surprising, I know). I'm pretty sure you already think I'm a jerk at this point and are about to throw this letter in the trash (or on the ground, if you don't mind littering). Well, don't be afraid to rip this letter to shreds and never think of me again, seriously, I won't mind. Go on to find some letter from a guy who is as desperate as you are. I won't be waiting for your reply._

_Sincerely,_

_Black Romeo_

Rukia read the letter once; twice. She turned the piece of paper over in her hand and then back again, blinking at it. The context was still the same.

The first though that made itself clear in her mind was; _What an asshole! _What kind of jerk would write that? What if instead of Rukia, some other girl had read that? Someone like Orihime? Sweet, gentle, hopeful Orihime? She felt like kicking this unseen guy in the shins for being so insensitive.

But then again, she thought as she glanced around, was he so wrong? After all, he'd said he had been brought here against his own will; she could relate to that. And she figured he had been thinking something along the lines of 'What the hell, I'll just get this over with.' like she herself had been. And she had to hand it to him, most of the people who came here and wrote in hopes of finding a destined soul mate were pretty desperate…

Without really knowing or caring how she came to the decision, Rukia found herself writing a letter, replying to the so-called 'Black Romeo'.

-x-

Ichigo stared in wonder at the sealed letter in his hand.

He had kicked Keigo out of the coffee shop after the taking the letter (not before being forced to promise to open and read the letter), and had been mulling over said letter ever since.

He seriously couldn't believe it. What girl in her right mind would _ever_ reply to the letter he'd written? When Keigo first mentioned it, he'd just assumed it was a mistake, but the letter was addressed to _Black Romeo,_ the nickname he vividly remembered using at the end of his letter. Someone really _had_ written back.

He felt a sudden overwhelming curiosity as he wondered who and why would write him back; and more importantly, _what_ they wrote.

His racing thoughts were interrupted by the chiming of the bells announcing the entrance of a new customer. Automatically pushing his thoughts aside and shoving the letter into the back pocket of his jeans, Ichigo went up to the cash register, prepared to take an order.

His brown eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the girl coming through the door and towards him.

Rukia glanced around the inside of the Urahara Coffee Shop, clutching the strap of the small handbag that hung from her shoulder as she let her eyes run over the eccentric coffee shop and inhaled the distinct smell of coffee beans.

This was just her fourth day in Karakura, but she wasn't about to waste time. Just yesterday, she had been on the phone with Orihime -whom she talked to regularly after receiving the town tour a couple of days ago- and she had mentioned that she was going to start looking for a job the next day. Orihime had wasted no time in mentioning that the Urahara Coffee Shop was hiring after an employee -Tatsuki, whi was apparently Orihime's best friend- quit and threw a mug of steaming coffee at the owner of the place after he made some perverted comment. The story didn't exactly make the spot seem appealing to Rukia, but that night she'd weighed her options and decided it would be prudent to take the opportunity…

Okay, so what happened was more of Rukia crossing the offer off the possibility list and, the next day -_today-_ she'd woken up early and gone around town, on places near the Katen Kyokotsu Motel where she could find a job. Orihime had, of course, questioned her on why she was hunting for a job when she was supposed to be on vacation; Rukia had told her that she had only narrowly managed to save enough for this trip, and if she didn't want to spend the last three weeks asking for food on the streets, she needed some cash.

So after a _very_ frustrating and disappointing, fruitless search -which included being chased out by rabid dogs, knocking over ridiculously expensive vases, and accidentally setting a trashcan on fire- Rukia finally found herself knocking on the Urahara Shop.

_Well, it _is_ conveniently located._ She mused to herself, thinking of how only a block away from the shop there was a subway station that dropped her off practically on the Katen Kyokotsu (she had to thank Orihime again for teaching her how to work the subway system).

Reminding herself of that, and doubting that she could possibly have any worse luck now that she'd been having all day, she walked up to the counter.

Only to be proved wrong. Her luck _could _get worse.

Loudly groaning, she stood before the man she immediately recognized, even though she had only met him once; two days ago, to be exact. The mass of blinding orange was hard to forget or confuse. Before she could say anything, he beat her to it.

"What are _you_ doing back here? Miss me already?" The man asked, throwing her a cocky smirk from the other side of the counter.

Rukia's eyes immediately narrowed. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm here because of _that._" She pointed to a sign placed on an empty spot on the wall just behind him that said 'NOW HIRING'.

The orange-haired man looked back as if to confirm what she was talking about, then turned back with a seemingly apologetic face. "Sorry," he said, putting his hand horizontally up to the height of his chest. "You must be at least _this_ tall to work here."

The venom directed at him from her violet glowering orbs could have paralyzed lesser men.

She watched as _amusement_ danced across his features, and truly considered jumping over the short counter separating them and giving him something to be _amused_ about. But, her rational Kuchiki side kicked in then, telling her that she shouldn't blow her last chance at a job over some idiot's idea of a joke. So, taking deep, calming breaths, Rukia forced a smile that resembled more of a grimace and asked through clenched teeth, "May I see the manager?"

"Sure thing, short stuff."

Before she the words could leave her fully opened mouth ready to shout out a string of curses that could make a sailor blush, the man behind the counter turned away from her and, facing towards a door a few feet away also on his side of the counter, he hollered:

"TESSAI!"

Not ten seconds later, the door swung open, revealing a tall, _really_ tall, bulky man who wore a white polo shirt that clung to his bulging arms and puffed out chest and had a small tag on the left of his chest that read 'Manager'. His skin was sun tanned and he wore a pair of dark sunglasses, despite being indoors; his black hair was pulled back into braids that hung down just below his thick neck.

"The chick is looking for a job." The orange-head said in a bored tone, jerking his thumb in her direction.

The large man, Tessai, looked down at Rukia from behind his glasses, which gleamed as a streak of light bounced off the lenses.

"You interested in working here, Miss?" The large man asked in an unsurprisingly deep voice.

Rukia quickly nodded, reminding herself not to be intimidated by the man who could probably be a professional wrestler. "Yes. May I fill out an application?" she requested.

The manager nodded and said, "Certainly." Before disappearing through the back door briefly then returning with a clipboard, which he promptly handed to Rukia.

Rukia thanked him, taking the clipboard that held what she presumed where the application papers, and went to sit down at a nearby table to fill it out with the pen that hung from a string attached to the same clipboard. Setting the clipboard on the table and hunching over it, she began to fill out all the useless information she'd already filled about a thousand times that day…

_Name, Gender, Date of birth, Hair and eye color, breast size…_

Wait, _what the hell?_

"What the hell is this?" she stood up indignantly, glaring at the clipboard in her hands. She stomped over to the cash register and slammed the clipboard on the counter. "Is this your idea of a _joke?_" she demanded, obviously fuming.

On the other side of the counter, the orange-haired man was leaning on his elbow on top of the counter and he looked from Rukia to the clipboard. "Not mine; my boss's." He answered, completely unruffled.

"What kind of sick, perverted-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence when the back door swung open, yet again, revealing two people this time.

One was a man with shaggy blond hair partly hidden underneath a striped green and white bucket hat; he had bits of lazy stubble on his chin, reflecting his laidback attitude, and his eyes were shadowed under the brim of his hat. Just a step behind him was a woman, tall -in Rukia's opinion-, and the most exotic appearance she'd ever seen; with her chocolate skin, long purple hair and feline golden eyes…She was quite the sight to behold. Even wearing a casual pair of black leggings, an orange sweater an a ponytail; she was impressive.

"Looks like you'll have to fight off another sue, Urahara." Ichigo stated as the man came out.

"Oh? But I haven't done anything! I'm just a humble, sexy, perverted shopkeeper." Urahara whined, producing a fan from Ichigo-didn't-know-where to cover half of his face with.

"Yeah, highlight on the _perverted_." He muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" Yoruichi spoke up.

"This girl was filling out the application and was…disturbed…by some of the questions." He guessed, motioning to the raven-haired girl standing on the other side of the counter.

His boss looked at her from over the brim of his fan, a dangerous gleam in his gray eyes. Ichigo rolled his eyes at Urahara's typical attitude. If the guy wasn't such a damned genius, and had Yoruichi along to save his ass half the time, he would have been put in jail a long time ago…Or locked in an insane asylum.

"Forgive me, Miss, if you were perturbed by any of the questions." The blond started, removing the fan from his face and looking at the girl with a seemingly innocent façade. "I meant no offense by them, I swear. They are just…necessary procedures."

Ichigo saw the girl raise a disbelieving eyebrow. She didn't look like the type of girl who would take Urahara's crap. He had to hold back a smirk at that.

"I understand." she spoke in a tight voice, her face hard. "I must be leaving now." she announced, starting to turn when…

"Wait, young lady!" Urahara called, stopping the girl. "I thought you were interested in a job here?"

The girl looked up at his boss dubiously. Ichigo seriously doubted she wanted a job here after _that._ Hell, he wasn't sure how _any_ of the female employees had still wanted jobs after reading Urahara's sick application.

"I…" she looked like she was looking for a good way to turn the man down.

"Because I have a spot open working here four hours a day, Monday through Friday." Urahar went on. "I'll start you up from minimum wage, and you can work up from there!" he said like a true vendor, though Ichigo knew better; no one working for Urahara would _ever_ get pass minimum wage.

The dark-haired girl, however, seemed to be considering it now. Ichigo had thought she would just walk out but, she seemed to be really deliberating.

"Do you have any prior experience working at a coffee shop?" Urahara piped up, making the girl's eyes go wide with surprise.

"Umm…No, but-"

"Have you ever worked at any food establishment?" he asked, interrupting her.

"Err, no." she said, looking sheepish.

"Any degrees in business or culinary arts?"

"…No." she finally said, lowering her head in apparent defeat.

"I see." Urahara nodded somberly. "You're hired!"

His exclamation enticed two loud, surprised "_What?"s_.One had come from Ichigo, the other from the dark-haired girl.

Urahara hid his grin behind his fan while Yoruichi rolled her eyes beside him.

"When can you start, err," the owner of the shop leaned over Ichigo's shoulder to read the name off of the discarded application. "-Kuchiki?"

The girl blinked. "Eh…Right away, I guess…"

"Excellent!" Urahara proclaimed. "You shall begin your night shift right now, then!" The blond raised his wrist to look at his watch and added. "You still have about two and a half hours before its over!" he said like it was the greatest thing in the world.

The look on the girl's face was priceless. Ichigo wished he had a camera right then; by 'right away', she didn't literally mean _right away_.

"Good luck, Kuchiki!" Urahara wished her with a casual salute before disappearing behind the back door.

Yoruichi looked at Ichigo and said, "Well, Ichigo. Looks like you'll have someone to keep you company again." She said, referring to how Ichigo had been working by himself -which had been more of a royal pain in the ass than usual- since Tatsuki had quit.

He glared at the woman, her words dawning on him.

Amusing as the girl's reaction had been, he did _not_ want to spend the rest of his summer working every night with a girl that had her temper and annoying prick-ish attitude. Granted, Tatsuki had a similar temper -if not worse-, but that was different. Tatsuki had been his friend for as long as he could remember… He'd only met this girl once before and it hadn't exactly been smooth sailing.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, he noticed on the girl's face that she was probably thinking something along the same lines as he.

"I don't want to work with her!" He exclaimed bluntly, pointing at the girl for emphasis.

Her mouth dropped open and it was like flipping a switch. "What makes you think I want to work with _you?_ I'd rather work with a toad!" she yelled, looking at him furiously.

Before Ichigo could retort, Yoruichi cut in swiftly.

"Children, save your lovers spat for the bedroom. Get to work you two."

His mouth fell open.

"_It's not a lovers spat!"_ They yelled out at the exact time, causing them to turn and glare at each other intensely.

Yoruichi's golden eyes danced between them with a clear glint of amusement and she grinned. _'This will prove to be rather interesting…Or entertaining at the very least.'_ She thought deviously to herself.

"Whatever." she said, purposely dismissing their denials. "Like I said, you should get to work."

She directed her gaze at Ichigo. "Kuchiki is new here, so its up to you to help her get around, Ichigo."

The orange-head openly gaped at her. "What the hell? That's not my job! Shouldn't Urahara or Tessai do that 'employee training' crap?"

"Urahara and Tessai are busy, you should know that, Ichi." She said in a condescending tone that she knew got on his nerves. He was just so fun to tease.

The tall man glared at her, his usual scowl deepening until she was sure it had to be uncomfortable.

"You don't have to do that much. Just show her the ropes."

With that, Yoruichi disappeared after Urahara, silently congratulating herself and snickering at the fun that was sure to come soon. She couldn't wait to tell Urahara.

Outside, the mood wasn't so cheery.

Rukia had her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest and was pointedly glaring at a random spot _away_ from the orange-haired man behind the cash register. After a while, she snuck a quick peak at him and saw that he was in her exact same position, only reversed.

They were silent until finally, the man released a loud huff and turned to her. Noticing the motion, Rukia followed suit and faced him, albeit reluctantly.

"Okay," He spoke up gruffly, his eyebrows etched tightly together. "I know we got off on the wrong foot, but it seems we'll have to see a lot of each other from now on-"

Rukia couldn't stop the snort that interrupted him, causing his amber eyes to narrow further.

"Believe me, I'm not any happier than you are. But the least we can do is at least _try_ to be civilized. For the sake of our jobs."

Rukia considered this for a second, knowing deep down that what he said made sense…As much as she hated to admit it. Besides, he wasn't proposing that they actually _liked_ each other or became good buddies. They just had to tolerate each other enough to survive four hours a night for the next two months…She supposed it was reasonable. And with all her Kuchiki upbringing on her side, Rukia was sure she could manage…_almost _sure, she corrected as he looked at his scowling face looking down at her.

"All right, deal." She agreed, all business-like.

The man nodded once, his scowl not lessening one bit. "Then I guess we haven't been introduced properly yet." He extended his hand towards her over the counter.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Rukia Kuchiki." she replied, meeting his eye as she gave his large hand one firm shake with her much smaller one.

Without undoing their tight -a bit overly so- grasp on their hands, they met each other's gaze. "Well Rukia," he spoke up. "Time to get you started."

He then let go of her hand, turned around, and the next thing she knew, a filthy rag was tossed in her face. With a loud yelp, she removed it from her face and glared at the man, Ichigo.

"First lesson," he said before she could yell anything. "Table cleaning." A smirk appeared on his face as he pointed Rukia towards the multiple tables full of straw wrappers, spilled coffee and other such messes.

She looked back at him and gaped.

"Sorry, princess. You need to move _up_ to cash register duty." He gave her a self-satisfied grin, thinking this could work out after all.

"Start cleaning."

It would be over two hours before Ichigo could finally return his attention to the letter in the back pocket of his jeans.

* * *

**A/N: Yippee Chapter 3! **

**First of all, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I have to admit, I was a little disheartened by the lack of reviews, but I'm too excited for this story to stop writing it (or ignoring studying to write it)XD Anyways, thanks to those who _did_ review. It means a lot.**

**So, I finally introduced the letter-exchanging bit, trust me, I haven't gotten near deep enough into that ;) And as u can see, Ichigo and Rukia are going to start working together now. What disasters and adventures await them? Tune in next chapter to find out^^**

**Oh and btw, when coming up with the Destiny Willow thing, I did think of the movie Letters to Juliet, but only in the whole 'writting anonymous letters and leaving them for soemone to find'. The rest is mine, as I haven't even seen Letters to Juliet (though I'm dying to!) And the lovers' story that goes with the place, I mostly made up, but some of it was based off of the Tanabata myth which seems to be brought up so frequently in Bleach debates and all that. And fun fact, while I was trying to remember the name for the Willow tree, I had to think of Harry Potter's Womping Willow before I remembered the 'willow' thing XD**

**Okay, so my rambling ends here. I hope u guys like it so far :)**


	4. Letters, Work and Invitations

Ichigo let out a weary sigh as he finished sneaking quietly up to his room.

Luckily for him, his shift at the Urahara Shop ended at eleven, and in the time it took him to close up and drive back all the way back to his house, it was nearly midnight by the time he got back. Which meant everyone was asleep and he could climb up to his room without fear of being intercepted by his insane father.

Without bothering to switch on the light in his room, Ichigo dropped his car keys on the desk and tiredly let himself fall into bed.

Today's shift had been _exhausting._ The first two hours had been as mundane and boring as ever…But then Rukia had shown up. In a matter of minutes, she had gone from a random customer bickering with him, to a job applicant, to an employee. To his utter dismay.

When Tatsuki quit, it was bad. He was left doing all the work by himself, and that cheap-ass Urahara didn't even bother giving him a slight raise. Now that Rukia was working with him, he'd figured, if anything, he'd have a hand to help him work the shift.

If tonight was any indicator…He was wrong. It turned out Rukia was a stubborn, annoying, refuses-to-do-as-she-is-told, ignorant midget; more than he'd originally thought anyway. Being her first night working there, Ichigo told her to clean the tables (he didn't even make her sweep the floors!), and she wouldn't do it until after spending almost ten minutes arguing with him as to why _she_ should be the one cleaning. He had tried to rationally explain that she still hadn't been taught how to work the cash register or the coffee machines, so until then, she would have to stick to the basics.

Anyone could understand that, right?

Wrong.

Rukia Kuchiki was just a class all her own. She just couldn't get it through her head, and continued to insist and grumble angrily that she should not be cleaning tables -even after she'd grudgingly gone to do it-.

And then there was the time when she made her way back to the counter were he was working, looking dramatically exhausted and wiping imaginary sweat off her brow -to which he only reacted by rolling his eyes- and then she placed the dirty cleaning rag on the counter and announced she was finished. Ichigo had, of course, looked at her dubiously before looking back up to confirm her words. He wasn't surprised at all when he immediately jerked his thumb in the direction of a recently vacated table covered in used napkins and empty Styrofoam cups people were too lazy to throw in the garbage themselves.

"That doesn't look finished to me." he had said before tossing the rag back to her and making a shooing motion to get her to go and do her job.

She had gaped incredulously and said, "But I already cleaned that one!"

Ichigo had graciously explained that while yes, she had indeed cleaned it, it was now dirty again and needed her services once again. The look she had shot him was venomous.

That was a basic summary of the night; Ichigo telling Rukia everything she had to do and having to listen to her complain and refuse for endless minutes, and having to convince her otherwise. He was like a damned supervisor with the salary of a janitor. Ichigo dropped his hand on top of his face and groaned as he slid it downwards, making his skin stretch comically in the process. To think he had to put up with this until the end of the summer. The thought made his head ache.

_Think of law school; think of law school._ He repeated the old chant that had convinced him to take the job at Urahara's for the summer in the first place.

Ichigo was a pre-law student at the Karakura University; he would start his fourth year this September. Next year, he was going to law school…Or so he hoped. His grades weren't a problem; he had some of the highest in almost all of his classes and would no doubt be accepted with open arms into law school. The only problem was tuition.

Even with a partial scholarship helping him, law school was still going to be one heavy blow to his Dad's wallet. It wasn't like he and his family were poor, they were actually pretty well off; his Dad was the only steady income, but the clinic he owned was doing rather well (mostly thanks to the ridiculous crime rates of Karakura town) and no one was ever lacking in his house. But with Ichigo's college, not to mention his two younger sisters going to start college that same year as well…Law school was a bit much.

But Ichigo knew what he wanted, and hell, he wanted _it_. And once Ichigo Kurosaki had his mind set on something, _nothing_ could stop him. Not money, not violence, and certainly not an annoying midget coworker. His determination to go to law school and be able to afford it were what pushed him to get a summer job at Urahara's (on top of many part-time jobs he worked through his last three years of college); and they were now what were going to help him survive the next three months of working with Rukia Kuchiki.

If he was lucky, maybe she'd quit before then.

Ichigo almost grinned at that before realizing that he probably wouldn't be so lucky. He turned over in his bed and heard a weird crinkling sound coming from…the back pocket of his jeans?

A moment of confusion passed and was replaced by realization as Ichigo jerked up and, remembering what he had been about to do before Rukia had shown up, pulled out the square envelope -slightly crumpled now- and looked at it.

Ichigo reached with his hand to the lamp sitting on top of the desk beside his bed and pulled the small dangling chain that would turn the light on. By the dim lamp light, he focused on the still unopened envelope addressed to '_Black Romeo'._

What the hell, he thought. In one swift motion, he ripped open the envelope and extracted the folded up paper inside.

He stared at its contents for a moment without really reading them; it wasn't a long message. Not much longer than his own had been anyhow. Then he started reading.

_Black Romeo:_

_You seem like quite the charmer. I bet your enchanting qualities make you quite the magnet for the female population. I will take the liberty to assume that you did not write that letter out of the desire to find your soul mate as much as having been forced to do it._

_So why am I writing back to you? The hell if I know. I guess out of the hundreds of letters here yours was the only one that wasn't leaking with a desperate hope to loose your virginity. _

_I suppose I don't have anything else to say to you. I don't expect a reply for this. It was a pleasure to meet you, figuratively. Have a nice life._

_ -White Juliet_

By the time Ichigo was done, his eyesight was sore due to the cursed pink ink used to write the letter. However, the girly color was misleading, to say the least, when compared to the actual message.

He'd already figured that this chick would have to be…odd to have replied to his openly rude and insulting letter; but he hadn't expected her to have actually responded quite like that either. He didn't know what he'd expected, actually…It just wasn't that.

This girl, who wittily called herself 'White Juliet' in response to his own alias, had responded in a letter that, unlike his own, had not been blatantly rude and sarcastic. Though yes, there was sarcasm -plenty of it, actually- in her letter, it was laced artfully through a polite and almost cold blanket that served to mask something else…Something Ichigo recognized because he himself had experienced it.

Absolute indifference.

Whoever that girl was, she was as interested in finding her destined soul mate as he was. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the most likely circumstances were that she had, like him, been dragged unwillingly by annoying friends who would be better off getting a life of their own and forced to write a letter for them to get off her back. Or something along that context.

Ichigo felt a slight bubbling of something inside him. It wasn't curiosity, exactly, but that was the closest thing there was for him to put a name to it, so he stuck with curiosity. When he'd written that letter after being harassed by Keigo to do so, the last thing he had ever expected was to read a reply.

For one thing, he hadn't planned -it hadn't even occurred to him- to actually go back to that dumb tree people were so infatuated with and check to see if his 'soul mate' had written back to him yet. For another, he'd been fully aware while writing the letter that no girl in her sane mind would bother writing to _him_ while in their search for true love. And finally, even if he _had_ expected a response, it would have been something along the lines of some insulted, ditzy chick complaining about why he had to be so rude and giving him a lecture on people's feelings and the power of love or something.

None of the above happened. And Ichigo had to admit, he was slightly intrigued by this girl. He continued to stare at the letter and scoffed loudly at the drawings at the bottom left.

There were pink scribbles that formed odd lines, connecting into the shape of what he thought was supposed to be…a rabit.

The mutant rabbit thing was sitting on top of a crudely drawn tree and had one paw stretched out and holding out a letter.

Ichigo looked the letter again and couldn't connect the voice of the girl speaking to the neon pink ink or the awful rabbit drawing. After a few moments, he set the letter down on his desk. Normally, he would now reach to turn off the lamp illuminating the room and fall back into his bed sheets and into blissful much-needed sleep. However, what he did was as unexpected as receiving the letter had been.

Getting up from his spot on the edge of the bed, Ichigo went to sit at the chair in front of his desk and reached into one of the drawers to extract a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Without being quite sure what his motives were, and not really caring, Ichigo started writing down.

_White Juliet:…_

-x-

Rukia groaned loudly when the sound of knocking brought her back from the land of sleep.

She didn't even crack open an eyelid when she called out "Coming!", before remembering that she wasn't in her house and that someone knocking on her door was _not_ expected.

Jerking up in her bed, she automatically looked to the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table, and her eyes widened when she red the glowing red numbers. _2:37pm_ it read, and she had to rub her eyes, blink, and look again to make sure her eyes weren't betraying her. She _never_ slept so late…

The sound of knocking came again and brought her out of her incredulous stupor.

"One minute!" she called out again, and rushed to the minuscule bathroom, grabbing the nearest clothing items lying limply on the back of a black chair on the way. She sped through a morning routine of brushing her teeth, splashing some water on her face and getting dressed before reentering the room as she awkwardly tried patting her sleep-ruffled hair back into place and going to open the motel room door.

When she did, she blinked at the sight that greeted her.

It was a man; he was fairly tall (even without counting in the fact of her own stature) and had semi-long wavy chestnut hair held back in a low ponytail. His face was set in a lazy smile with droopy brown eyes and had brown stubble growing along his jaw and over the corners of his mouth. He was wearing a casual attire of blue jeans and an unbuttoned pink -yes, pink- shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows; underneath which he wore a regular white wife beater that was low enough to reveal brown chest hair similar to the stubble around his chin and the exposed hair on his arms.

What really caught Rukia's attention about him, though, was the straw hat he wore.

Though he was probably not out of place in the motel, he still wasn't someone Rukia was expecting to see at her door.

"Um…May I help you?" she asked uncertainly, glancing from side to side to see if he had come with anyone else or if anyone was looking around for him and would direct him to the room he was looking for -which wasn't Rukia's-.

The man continued to smile down at her; his face was so utterly relaxed it was hard to picture him frowning -like it would be too much work for the muscles-. "I'm Shunsui Kyoraku." He introduced himself. "The owner of the Katen Kyokotsu."

Rukia's eyes widened in surprise and she scurried to say, "Oh! I'm Rukia Kuchiki, pleased to meet you, Sir." she spoke in as much of the polite tone she had learned through the years from her Brother, disguising her surprise at discovering this man was the owner of the place as much as she could.

"No need for such formalities, Miss Rukia!" he said, widening his smile until his eyes were squinted shut for a moment. "You're a guest at my home," he announced, referring to the run-down motel proudly. "Call me Shunsui."

Rukia smiled and chuckled awkwardly. "Kyoraku will be fine."

It seemed like he was about to argue when someone new appeared a step behind him to his left.

"Mister Kyoraku, you are not here to harass the guests." she said in a scolding voice.

Rukia looked to see a woman, slender and taller than she was (gee, another one…), wearing glasses and pinned up black hair. She recognized her as the receptionist of the motel.

"Ah, little Nanao! Why so formal? Aren't we friends?" Kyoraku pouted and complained almost childishly.

"No." The receptionist, Nanao, said curtly as she pushed her wire-framed glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You are my boss, and I am your employee. Nothing more."

A dark aura fell over Kyoraku like a rain cloud. "My little Nanao is so cold." he muttered in fake tears.

Rukia blinked at their antics. She was loosing precious time where she could be finishing her unpacking for this. "Excuse me," she cut in tentatively, trying to remain polite. "Is there anything you wanted?"

At this, Kyoraku perked up and he was about to say something when Nanao beat him to the punch.

"Miss Kuchiki," she said, having known Rukia's name from having attended her on the day of her arrival and giving her the hey to her room. "As a guest of the Katen Kyokotsu Motel, you are cordially invited to this Saturday's dinner party that will be held in honor of Sir Yamamoto's birthday."

Rukia looked confusedly at the two people in front of her.

"All guests of the motel are invited, Miss Rukia." Kyoraku explained cheerfully. "We hope you can make it!" as he said 'we', he put an arm around Nanao's slim shoulders and pulled the woman against his side.

Nanao's face would have been comical if it hadn't made Rukia fear for the man's safety.

Rukia gave a hasty thank you and said she'd try to make it, then closed the door and retreated to her room; the sounds of Kyoraku whimpering in pain as he clutched the part of his head that, judging by the loud '_thwack'_ she'd heard, would have a large bump by now.

She shook her head slightly at the strange performance, then looked at her room, the Saturday dinner party invitation already in the back of her mind.

After a few seconds of deliberation and longing glances to the unmade, welcoming bed, she sighed and made her way to the open bags still half full of clothing and other items.

She still had at least three hours to finish unpacking.

-x-

Rukia shoved the last bite of her ham and cheese sandwich into her mouth and swallowed with a satisfied gulp before pushing open the glass door of the Urahara Coffee Shop.

That sandwich had been her only food since she'd woken up that afternoon (she could still hardly believe that she had been so wiped out last night that she actually slept through the morning), but she still felt a high sense of accomplishment because she had finally finished unpacking and settling into her motel room for the two months to come.

However, there were some disadvantages.

Once inside the coffee shop, Rukia gave a sneaking glance and, not seeing any sign of orange hair and an annoying scowl, she made her way to the cushioned seats at the very back of the place and flopped down into one of them.

She was exhausted; last night had been only two hours working in that overpriced shop, and she was already starting to think she was better off looking for a job at the slaughter house down the next street.

The previous night had been two hours of endless table cleaning that had left her back horrendously sore, plus the irritating voice and yelling of the bossy orange-haired freak that seemed to think that _he_ was the owner of the place. After just two hours, Rukia had been ready to shove her filthy cleaning rag down Ichigo's throat.

After such a night, she shouldn't have been so surprised that she actually slept til almost three o' clock.

She heaved a sigh and lay her head on the table over her folded arms acting as a pillow. Without even thinking about it, Rukia let her eyelids shut and settled in for a little rest. That is until…

"Oi! This isn't nap time at a daycare center, midget."

That voice grated against her nerves and made her eyebrows scrunch down so much they almost met. Her mouth twitched.

"_Hey! _There's work to do, get the hell up!"

"Shut _up!_ I don't need you telling me what to do." She snapped, straightening up to glare at the man who was really starting to make her question her decision to come to Karakura.

"Oh, really? Then what the hell are you still _doing_ there?" he said, referring to the table meant for paying _customers_.

Ichigo could feel his scowl deepening dangerously and he had only spent less than a minute with the girl now.

Deciding that he better put a break on his nerves before he lost his job over the murder of a coworker, Ichigo took a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as he took a calming breath.

"Please don't make this any harder than it already is and _get to work._" he started out reasoning and ground out the last part.

Rukia looked at him unbending, holding her ground. But finally, she acknowledged silently his attempt at a momentary truce and -not without a huff- stood up and conceded.

"Here." Ichigo said once they'd reached the area where the ordering counter was. He had already gone around to the back of the counter and was holding out a folded up green material towards the black-haired girl.

"What is it?" Rukia asked, looking down at the thing in his hand suspiciously.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and groaned. "It's not going to bite you. Just take it and put it on."

Rukia gave him an annoyed glance at his remark but took the folded thing into her hands. She took the upper area in her hands and watched as it became unfolded and revealed itself to be an apron.

She immediately groaned. "No."

"What the hell do you mean no?" Ichigo started, already smelling the beg ginning of the first quarrel of the night.

"I didn't have to wear this yesterday. I don't want to wear it." she declared, looking down at the apron with a cutely scrunched up nose.

_Wait._

Did he just call her _cute?_

_Hell no!_

He immediately crushed the remainder of the thought down. The she-demon midget deserved _zero_ adjectives that could in any way be positive.

"You work here now, unfortunately." he muttered the last word, but judging by the murderous glare she gave him, she'd heard. "You have to wear it."

"I don't need that ugly thing to clean tables." She countered.

Ichigo felt his patience running thin, and didn't know how it would make it four more hours. "Look, I don't like the apron any more than you do. We don't get a say in this, so just wear the damn thing and get to work." he paused and a thought occurred to him. "Or, if you really hate it that much, quit."

She glared more intensely at that, and quickly slipped the green thing -ridiculously small in his opinion- over her head, using her hands to slip her dark tresses out from under the straps by her neck and giving one quick apraising look at the nametag on the left side of her chest.

"There." she announced, non-too-happily.

"You have to tie it at the back." Ichigo informed her, looking at the two straps hanging limply at either side of her waist.

Rukia looked down at the straps and held them in her hands, looking at them strangely. Then she proceeded to fumble with them to try and tie them behind her.

Ichigo watched her struggle futilely for about a minute before stepping around the counter and coming up behind her.

"What are you-"

"I'm helping you, so shut up."

Knowing she wanted to protest, Ichigo set to work quick and began tying the straps at her back.

He concentrated on nothing but the green straps as he did so, but even so, his male eyes couldn't stop themselves from scanning over the rest of the view. He looked at how her slim back softly curved and at the area just below where his hands worked on the straps; the bump that was both subtle and curvaceous at the same time.

Ichigo gulped and hastily finished tying the apron before shoving his hands in his pocket and awkwardly clearing his throat.

"Done." he said, keeping his eyes away from her or any of her curves.

_She doesn't have any curves. She's a flat little midget and nothing more. And annoying. Extremely annoying._

"Uh,"

Ichigo expected an annoying insult or another complaint -probably about how he tied it to tight or something, and tensed to make a comeback.

"Thanks."

The snappy remark died on his lips as she actually _thanked_ him.

"Yeah, yeah. Just learn how to tie it yourself next time." he said, recovering. "Get to work before Urahara starts bitching."

"Alright, _fine_." she looked at him annoyed, then reached out a hand, palm upwards.

Ichigo smirked and handed him the currently clean wipe that had been behind him on the counter. "Good girl." he said condescendingly as he dropped the wipe into her waiting hand.

She stuck her tongue out at him and turned to go start cleaning.

Ichigo stood there a moment longer and ran a hand through his orange hair, before turning to go back behind the counter.

-x-

Ichigo looked up from the muffin display he'd just finished rearranging and snuck saw the raven-haired menace -as he had come to think of her- straighten up after finishing cleaning another table, then begin to practically drag herself over to another dirty table with her petite form slouched and her skinny shoulders slummed.

She took one dainty hand up to her mouth to try in vain to suppress a long yawn. With a look of resignation, she sprayed the surface of the table with Windex and started to wipe it clean.

The sight of her exhausted form stirred something in Ichigo and, as much as he disliked her, he took pity on her.

"I'll handle that." he declared, snatching the cleaning cloth from Rukia's nearly limp hands. Honestly, he didn't know why she was so tired; it was only a four-hour shift and she had only started working there the day before. "You can call it a day."

He had half expected her to stubbornly argue with him, as she always did no matter what the case, but instead, she barely managed a nod before she slumped right into the seat at the table, not even bothering to set down the Windex bottle, which Ichigo promptly took from her hand and, if he didn't know any better, he'd say she didn't even notice.

"What's got you so wiped out anyway?" He voiced his question. "Is cleaning a few tables _that_ taxing for you? Used to having maids or nannies do all the hard work?" He didn't know why he started taunting her…Probably because after four hours of dealing with her he'd just gotten used to at least some degree of hostility while speaking with her.

"Shut up." The anger in her words was dimmed as another yawned followed the statement. "I'm just tired from all the unpacking I did today. At least I'm finished." she said the last relieved part more to herself than him.

Rukia stretched her arms above her head and yawned again before bending forward to lay her head on the table.

Ichigo sprayed some more Windex on the table and continued to clean around her head.

"Unpacking from what?" he asked. "A vacation this early in the summer?"

Head still resting face-down on the table, she shrugged her shoulders and he saw her shake her head 'no' without lifting it once. "More like _for_ a vacation."

He raised his eyebrows at that, though she couldn't see.

"At least, it's supposed to be a vacation. Sort of." she muttered, raising her head in a way that made it seemed like it weighed 50 pounds and then rested the side of her head on her palm.

"Wait, so let me get the straight," Ichigo paused his cleaning. "You're here on _vacation_?" he questioned. "Who comes to Karakura for a vacation?"

She sent him a halfhearted glare. "_I_ do. Got a problem with that?" she asked crankily. Of course, when was she _not_ cranky.

"No need to get hormonal on me. I was just asking."

Ichigo got the idea that she might have hit him then if she hadn't looked like blinking was too much effort at the moment.

"So wait," Ichigo suddenly started. "If you're here on vacation…Why did you get a job?"

"Not that it's any of your business," Rukia began. "but I'm going to stay here a while and unlike you probably think, I _don't_, in fact, have a money-growing tree in my backyard. I kind of need this job."

Ichigo had to admit, he _was_ a bit surprised by her statement. Yes, he had, indeed classified her as some bratty little rich girl who had never worked a day in her life and was here because she'd thrown a tantrum and her 'daddy' as making her work to teach her responsibility or something.

Still, no one could blame him. What was he supposed to think when the girl complained about wiping tables and didn't even know how to tie an apron by herself?

"So, how long are you staying?" he inquired.

"Do you care?" Rukia replied.

"Not really."

"Then don't ask."

He gaped and the look quickly turned into an irritated scowl. Rukia took the moment to take the cleaning cloth from his inattentive hand as she stood from her seat with what looked like a shot of energy.

"I'll take it from here. Thanks for the help."

After saying that, she proceeded to laboriously wipe the table, finishing quickly and moving on to another unclean table.

"Ungrateful little-" Ichigo muttered under his breath as he went back to the counter to make sure everything was ready for him to leave. "I try to be nice but nooo!" his mutters went on and probably would have gone a lot further if he hadn't been interrupted by the ring of a phone.

Seeing Rukia was busying herself with cleaning the last of the tables, he went to pick up the phone set on the wall behind the counter.

"Urahara Coffee Shop, sorry we're clo-" his formal voice trailed off when he heard the person on the other line.

"_Ichigo! Is that you?" _The voice, conspicuously female, exclaimed, obviously knowing it _was_ him.

"Yeah, who's asking?" Ichigo replied anyway.

The voice gasped loudly. _"You don't recognize me? Aw! How could you not know who I am?"_

"I don't," Ichigo's nerves were grated down enough. He didn't have patience for this. "so just tell me who it is or I'm hanging up."

"_Meanie._" the voice accused him. _"And here I am being nice calling you to invite you to a party."_

"I'm hanging up now-"

"_Wait! It's Rangiku, okay? Stupid." _she said, annoyance seeping into her previously cheerful voice.

"I don't know any Rangiku." he said flatly.

"_Ugh. Why do you always forget my name?" _the person complained. _"You _do_ know me. You met me at that one frat party, remember?"_

Ichigo didn't exactly go to that great many parties -and when he did, it usually wasn't willfully-, so he figured he would remember the one this 'Rangiku' person was talking about. He came up blank. "Sorry, I don't-"

He heard her groan on the other line. _"Blue eyes, long strawberry blonde hair, big b-"_

"Stop!" Ichigo cut her off, feeling himself getting flustered. "Okay, yeah I remember you." _I think._ He added silently.

"_About time. Anyway-"_ she exclaimed, voice cheerful again. _"I'm calling to tell you-"_

"How'd you even get this number?" ichigo wondered aloud; she went on like he hadn't spoken.

"_-that there is going to be a party tomorrow night, and I want you to go with me."_

"No."

"_What? That can't be your answer!"_

"It is."

"_But come on!" _she whined. "_It'll be fun!"_

"I don't like parties." he stated truthfully.

"_But it's a dinner party! They'll be lots of food and drinks, oh they'll be plenty of drinks-"_

"No thank you." He said before she went on.

"_Please?" _She suddenly sounded pleading. _"Just one night- a few hours at most. It'll be over before you know it."_

Ichigo groaned. "Can't you find someone else?"

"_Probably."_ she said in an almost smug tone. _"But nothing better than a desperate pervert at _this_ short notice. And my boss refuses to go with me, so that only leaves-"_

"Me." he finished for her. "Gee, I feel so special." he remarked dryly.

"_You should; it's not every day you get a date with someone like me." _When Ichigo remained quiet, she spoke again. _"Look, it'll just be a few hours, and it would mean a lot to me. So, please?"_

Ichigo wanted to ask why she needed a date so badly; and if she really needed one so bad, why not just go out there and get one herself? Pervert or not.

But still, hearing her pleading, Ichigo couldn't help but be reminded of one of his sisters, looking up at him wide-eyed, asking for one piggyback ride…

"Fine."

The squealing on the other end nearly made him drop the phone and take back his decision.

"But _just _for a few hours." he stressed.

"_Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much! You won't regret it!"_

"Where do I meet you?" he asked, not bothering to offer to pick her up.

"_The Katen Kyokotsu Motel. That's where the party is being held. Thanks again, Ichigo! I knew I could count on you!"_

That last statement made his eyes widen and he was about to yell back at Rangiku that he took it back, but she had already hung up.

"_Bitch."_ he growled, slamming the phone back on the receiver.

"I hope you're not talking about me."

He looked down, surprised to hear her. He scoffed as he saw Rukia looking at him with her arms folded and a raised eyebrow.

"No, I wasn't talking about you…This time."

"Good." she said, about to throw the rag on top of the counter along with the Windex bottle.

"Uh-uh." Ichigo stopped her. "Those go back there." he said, signaling to a bottom drawer underneath the coffee machine behind him.

Rukia rolled her eyes, as if asking '_Why can't _you_ do it?' _

Ichigo responded by not moving and making an exasperated motion for her to move it.

She did so -unhappily-, and went around the counter to settle everything in its place.

"I'm leaving now." she announced.

"I'm not stopping you." Ichigo responded without looking at her as he removed his apron and, folding it, shoved it into another drawer underneath the coffee machine; one side from the one where they kept the cleaning supplies.

Despite her declaration, Rukia had not moved an inch.

"Did you need something else?" he asked, not caring that he sounded rude.

He saw with surprise how the color rose to her cheeks. She tried to cover her embarrassment with a cough.

"I just need," she trailed off and used a finger to point to something right behind her.

Ichigo quirked an eyebrow before he saw what she meant. He groaned. "You can't be serious."

She glared, and that was answer enough.

"For God's sakes. Turn around." he ordered, already stepping forward to pull at the necessary strap as hurriedly as possible, this time careful not to let his eyes linger anywhere they didn't have any business looking-.

The bow at her back became undone and she quickly removed her own apron and began to shove it in the same place he had -not bothering to properly fold it.

Acting on some compulsive instinct that he had probably acquired thanks to his sister Yuzu, Ichigo snatched the apron out of Rukia's hands before she shoved it in the drawer in a crumpled ball and folded it neatly before putting it over his and closing the drawer.

Rukia huffed at his action and, without thanking him -he duly noted- she turned and began to leave.

"See you Monday." she called without turning as she opened the door to get out.

"Unfortunately." he replied loud enough for her to hear, just as the glass door swung closed with a chime.

-x-

Rukia was too tired to even change out the clothes she was wearing before she threw herself down on the full-sized mattress of her bed at the Katen Kyokotsu.

She could have been unconscious right then and there, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open long enough for her to reach to turn off the lamp at her bedside table.

As she was about to do so, something else caught her eye.

A small piece of paper lying on the table, unnoticed until then. Fighting her weariness for another minute, she grabbed the paper and used the lamplight to read.

_Birthday Dinner Party at the Katen Kyokotsu!_

_Saturday, 7:00PM._

_Hope you can make it!_

She quickly remembered her visitors that morning (well, that afternoon) telling her about the party. She'd forgotten as soon as she heard about it, but now she saw that someone, a cleaning lady probably, had bothered to leave an actual invitation.

Rukia wasn't much of a partygoer, never had been; so obviously she didn't plan on going to some party when she wouldn't even know anyone there.

An unexpected phone call the next morning would change her plans.

* * *

**A/N: Chapter four everyone! And still only twelve reviews. Tsk, tsk.**

**Okay I'll stop complaining now xD**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I appreciate it, I'm always glad to know someone is reading the story^^**

**So, about this chapter, all I want to clarify is that Ichigo _did_ write a reply to the mysterious 'White Juliet', but he hasn't gone to deliver it yet (put it on the Willow). But he will, don't worry. Soon (-next chapter, soon-) **

**And also, Yes, Ichigo and Rukia are being invited to the same party. You'll get to see more of that next chapter, where I'll also introduce a few new characters and, of course, get in some more IchigoXRukia interactions ;D**

**Thanks for reading! Leave a review on your way! [pretty please :)] Til next chapter!**


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